How I stopped sweating the small stuff

Hey friend,

Do you get caught up in the hamster wheel of life and lose perspective? Do you ever find yourself getting stressed out about things that shouldn't really matter or making things a bigger deal than they need to be?

Yeah, same.

Well, I should say I used to relate to that. The truth is I've come a long way. In fact, people often comment that I don't let stressful things bother me and always keep perspective. It's great on this side of the fence, and I'd love to share my journey to getting here with you today.

First though, I want to be straight: I'm not zen all the time. I do sometimes lose my cool, especially when I've had too many nights with not enough sleep, and there are a million things going on with work and kids. I think this is ADHD-related, but I can become incredibly overwhelmed, which just stresses my whole system.

But, these days it happens very rarely and I regain my composure pretty quickly. That's the difference.

So, if you're wondering what the magic bullet is, I won't make you wait:

Daily, consistent meditation.

I had always heard that meditation was 'good for me' and that it had many benefits: cognitive performance, lower stress, lower blood pressure, increased focus, you name it.

But I still wasn't sure it was for me. I have a busy mind and have always struggled to try and clear it.

As many of you who follow me may know, near the end of 2022, I decided to revamp my routine in order to make it more aligned with the life I want to live and the person I want to be. And that included finally adding a mindfulness practice to my routine.

I meditated most days, but sometimes I forgot or got too busy, and I often felt as though it wasn't 'working'. As the months went by, I still struggled to remain focused. However, I learned something that encouraged me to keep going: Meditation is not about being perfect. It's simply about awareness, and noticing that your mind has wandered is actually the whole point!!

Once I learned that, I was encouraged to keep with it. On top of this, I was starting to see benefits in my day-to-day life: more patience, better perspective, and an increased ability to deal with problems and stress.

I'll be honest: This kind of blew my mind! I wasn't really expecting to notice a difference in my overall life, but I did, and it was noticeable.

I decided I wanted to kick it up a notch. What if I meditated for 100 consecutive days?

I love a good challenge, and before this, my longest streak had been 34 days (and then just 16 days), so this would definitely be a challenge for me!

The one thing I did was prioritize meditation and make it a non-negotiable part of my routine. Running a little late? Meditate anyway. Forgot to meditate in the morning? Do it in the afternoon. No time to both meditate and go for a walk? Do a walking meditation.

I got creative. And... I hit 100 days! And then 150.

The impact was noticeable. The benefits I'd already seen from meditation were amplified and more consistent. I was amazed at my perspective when things didn't go my way or situations were overwhelming and stressful. I could take a step back and see the situation for what it really was. I was able to lean into empathy for others and myself. And I was able to tap into self-awareness when it came to my thought patterns.

So, will this streak continue forever? Ummm no... I broke my streak at day 153.

As many of you know, I just returned from a 2-week vacation with my family in Banff, Vancouver, and Tofino. And it was AMAZING! While my trip included a ton of mindfulness in nature, I also fell off the meditation bandwagon. Travelling with so many other people and adhering to their schedules, plus starting to ramp up training for my next ultra, meant that I was in a completely new routine, and I just forgot to meditate one day. And then another. And in that 2 week span, I probably only meditated a handful of times.

And that's okay!

Being too tied to perfection in our goals is also unhealthy (see, perspective!), and I decided to lean into self-empathy and not beat myself up about breaking my streak. I still see many of the benefits of meditation even when I miss a day.

And... now I'm home and back on the horse. Today, as I write this newsletter, is day 4 of my new streak... I missed my morning meditation among the kid chaos of camps and my trying to get everything organized, but I managed to do a 5min meditation between meetings, and it felt great.

Something is better than nothing.

I will absolutely start building my next 100-day streak and will continue with this practice.

So, how do you know if this practice is for you? Well if you:

• Are dealing with stress
• Overthink things
• Struggle with emotions
• Have a busy mind
• Want more clarity of thought
• Want to be a better leader, partner, parent, or friend...

It's for you. It has made pretty much every part of my life better. And... it's free!

Mindfulness is one of many topics we tackle in my group program. In the past few weeks, 3 different women in my community have announced stepping into new VP and C-level roles!! Sound interesting? DM me and let's chat :)

Until next time, friends... ????

Katy